GRUB Boot Problem From External Harddrive

[kasperbs]

Hi, New Linux user here!
I have tried to install openSUSE 10.2 on my external USB drive. Everything went ok, but I have troubles booting up from GRUB!

I don't know how much information you need so I'll just provide what I know:

Installation:
I followed this guide for installing GRUB on my USB drive, I used a DVD for my 32bit system.

After the installation i did what the guide suggested an entered this command in my Terminal (super user mode):
grub-install /dev/sdb

Then I opened my /boot/grub/device.map that look like this:

(hd2). /dev/hdb
(fd0). /dev/fd0
(hd1). /dev/sdb
(hg0) /dev/hda

Then as the guide suggested i changed my /boot/grub/menu.lst

So edit /boot/grub/menu.lst, replace all hd0 with hd1 and hd1 with hd0.

So that it now looks like this:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Tue Feb 13 16:05:52 UTC 2007
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,2)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.2
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.2-34-default root=/dev/sdb3 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sdb2 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18.2-34-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader (hd1,0)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader (fd0)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.2
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.2-34-default root=/dev/sdb3 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18.2-34-default

System Info
My external drive is partitioned so that sdb1 is 20gb taken up by windows and Linux is installed on sdb3

Further more i have two other hard drives used by windows, one that is recognized in SuSe as hda1 where windows is installed, and the other one that I use for backup is not recognized

Problem
When I boot from the external drive, GRUB loads perfectly and I can boot into windows if I want.

But if I try to boot into suse it seems at first ok but then after loading and showing a lot of info i get the following message:

.................................not found -- exiting to /bin/sh
sh: no job control in this shell
$

and the chance to write something like a commando prompt.

Hope Someone is able to help, sorry for all the information. I just didn't know what you guys would need.

:: Kasper

[devils casper]

post the output of fdisk -l command.







Casper

[kasperbs]

Is this it?

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80060424192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9733 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 9732 78172258+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 20023 160834716 42 SFS

Disk /dev/sde: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sde1 1 2590 20796142 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sde2 2590 2852 2104484+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sde3 2852 9729 55247534+ 83 Linux

[devils casper]

your external disk name is sde. edit device.map and menu.lst files, replace sdb with sde. re-install GRUB in /dev/sde.






Casper

[kasperbs]

I get the followingmessage

/dev/sde/ does not have any corresponding BIOS drive.

But thats probably because my fdisk -l command. have changed again, maybe because i have had the external drive turned on and off. (just a guess)

so now my fdisk -l command. looks like this:

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80060424192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9733 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 9732 78172258+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 20023 160834716 42 SFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 2590 20796142 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb2 2590 2852 2104484+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3 2852 9729 55247534+ 83 Linux

So now everything is back again to what it was...

[kasperbs]

NEW DEVELOPMENT

There seems to be something that have changed now. Now i can't boot GRUB directly from my external hard drive, i get the following message when my dvd drive is turned of:

GRUB 1.5 Loading

(or something like that)
and then i get

ERROR 17

But now if I turn my DVD drive on, and I'm booting into openSUSE's menu and chose boot from hard disk (the first option) there is no problem in loading GRUB. But then when I get half way into Linux I get the message shown in my first post:

.................................not found -- exiting to /bin/sh
sh: no job control in this shell
$

I'm now gonna post the following files: the fdisk -l command, device.map and menu.lst

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80060424192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9733 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 9732 78172258+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hdb: 164.6 GB, 164696555520 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 20023 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 20023 160834716 42 SFS

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 2590 20796142 b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda2 2590 2852 2104484+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 2852 9729 55247534+ 83 Linux

device.map

(hd2) /dev/hdb
(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd1) /dev/sdb
(hd0) /dev/hda

menu.lst

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Wed Feb 14 13:46:35 GMT 2007
default 0
timeout 8

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 10.2
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.2-34-default root=/dev/sdb3 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sdb2 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18.2-34-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader (hd1,0)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader (fd0)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.2
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.2-34-default root=/dev/sdb3 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18.2-34-default

So that status quo right now.

[devils casper]

edit menu.lst file.

title openSUSE 10.2
root (hd1,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.2-34-default root=/dev/sdb3 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sdb2 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18.2-34-default

Casper

[kasperbs]

Thanks for the reply,
a little move in the right direction. I can now boot GRUB from the external USB Drive, but when i try to boot openSUSE 10.2 from there, i get the following message:

Booting 'openhouse 10.2'

root (hd1,2)
ERROR 22: No Such Partition

Press any key to continue

[devils casper]

your harddisk is changing device mapping randomly. plug-in it in same USB post and edit device.map file.

(hd1)  /dev/sda

Casper

[kasperbs]

Tried that and got the same message as before:

Booting 'openSUSE 10.2'

root (hd1,2)
ERROR 22: No Such Partition

Press any key to continue

Plus now I can't even load the desktop environment even if i boot from the suse dvd.

I get this message when trying to boot from the dvd:

Starting... (something)
Starting... (something)
Starting... (something)
Starting... (something)
Starting... (something)
Starting... (something)
Starting... (something)
etc.

then..

Starting Firewall Initialization (phase 2 of 2) SuSEfirewall2: Warning: ip6tables does not support state matching. Extended IPv6 supprt disabled.
SuSEfirewall2: Warning: no interface active

Master Resource Control: runlevel 5 has bee
Skipped services in runlevel 5:

Welcome to openSUSE 10.2 (i586) - Kernel 2.6.18.2-34default (tty1).

linux-kasper login: _

hmm...